Report: Mike Griffin would have given Huntsville a shuttle

In this image provided by NASA-TV space shuttle Atlantis touches down on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., after completing the final space shuttle flight of the thirty-year program Thursday morning July 21, 2011.The next-to-youngest shuttle will remain at Kennedy Space Center and be put on display. (AP Photo/NASA-TV)

HOUSTON, Texas - Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin would have sent a space shuttle to Huntsville, published reports say. Griffin is quoted in Houston, where the town is still smarting over being passed over for the right to display one of the four retired shuttles.

"I'd have sent a shuttle to KSC, MSFC, and JSC. In the absence of political considerations, it is not a difficult decision," Griffin is quoted as telling Ted Oberg of KRTK-TV in Houston. Oberg posted his report Tuesday. KSC is Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which is getting a shuttle; MSFC is Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville; and JSC is Johnson in Houston.

Griffin, who was NASA administrator when the process of deciding where the shuttles would go began, referred to the three NASA centers critical to the shuttle program. MSFC managed its propulsion system, Johnson was mission control for the astronauts, and Kennedy launched the shuttles.

There appears to be no dispute over sending the fourth shuttle to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, but current Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. has caught considerable flack for choosing museums in New York City and Southern California for the remaining two shuttles.

NASA's inspector general reviewed the selection process and found no issues, but Houston Congressman Pete Olson thinks Bolden "ignored" the law regarding the shuttles' fate that he was supposed to follow.